Our Vietnam Generation
The thing those of us who've been to Vietnam know is
that you can't tell us what it was like to be there. Hearing people talk
about what it was like to be in Vietnam pains us. Many times it makes us
angry. Put simply, we don't want to hear public talk about the Vietnam War,
especially from those that didn't serve, and double especially from those
that ducked the war. What we also don't want to hear is talk from those
sorry souls that still wear their old Army jacket, sport long hair that
should be cut, and walk around talking about what it was like to be a
soldier in Vietnam. Those memories are too precious to be being bandied
about like small talk.
We also don't want to hear people
tell us who we were as a generation, or what we felt, or why we felt it, or
what motivated us, or what our values were. It enrages us to hear people
pontificate about why the protestors protested, what those who were drafted
felt, how most of the fighting and dying was
done by, for example, poor blacks that were drafted,
or, for that matter, almost anything else having to do with that time in our
lives.
Why do we take such offense at talk of Vietnam? Because
those who do the talking usually don't have a clue what they are talking
about. They're talking to hear themselves talk. They're telling tales to
make themselves feel better about who they are, and usually those tales are
false. Those who were really in
Vietnam don't talk about their experiences. They carry their thoughts with them, in their head.
Only rarely do they tell of their memories... and then only to those they trust.
They certainly don't talk about it in public.
Take the comment we made earlier about poor drafted blacks
doing the fighting and dying... this is the kind of talk that makes us
recoil and flash with anger. It's not the issue of black versus white that
bothers us, it's the stupidity of someone talking about who fights in wars,
when they don't know anything about how the Army works, how training is done
or how military specialties are assigned. If they did, they would know that
most draftees end up in the rear, doing administrative work, not combat.
During the Vietnam War 66% of the people who were sent to that country to
serve were volunteers, not draftees. 70% of those who lost their lives were
volunteers... again, they asked for the chance to fight in
that war... they were not drafted. And for the record: 86.3% of the men who
died in Vietnam were Caucasian (including Hispanics); 12.5% (7,241) were
black; with 1.2% belonging to other races.
You see, the problem we have with those who go on and on
about Vietnam is that their opinions are usually based on ignorance, the
kind of ignorance that caused them to run to Canada in the first place, or
use their connections to avoid the draft, or burn their draft card as though
doing so was going to do some good.
People like that, when they were young and protesting
the war, were nothing more than
opinionated no-nothings... but still, even as no-nothings, they had the
fascination and attention of the press... and so they got the publicity.
Think about it: it was much easier to
film some pimple faced kid at Columbia University telling the world what was wrong with
war than to get on an airplane, find your way to Vietnam, and spend the night with an 11B infantryman on a Search and Destroy
mission along the Cambodian border... so that you could get his
opinion about America, the draft and the war he was fighting. And so the no-nothings got coverage that
they shouldn't have. And with the lenses of the media on their
pimpled faces and drug addled brains they marched and sang... protesting so
that they could hear their own noise and think that they mattered.
Protesting for little purpose other than to hear themselves talk. Little did
they know that those they were protesting to bring home were
quite content and happy to be where they were... fighting in Vietnam.
If one looks at them closely it becomes crystal clear,
those who were doing the protesting were doing so for selfish reasons. They
protested to avoid the draft, to avoid leaving the good life they had, and
if the truth be known, to avoid having to cut the apron strings that tied them to
mommy... who coddled them with warmth, comfort, security, an allowance, and a bedroom
to sleep in... where she made the bed every day.
Now, so many years later, these losers are back again... trying to reassure themselves
with twisted justification that the choices they made so long
ago to turn their back on their country were the right choices. Now we see
them again, coming out of the woodwork, writing books and articles and
publishing movies presuming to tell the world what to think of the Vietnam War.
As though they have a clue.
For those of us who were there, the pain is still too
real to have ignoramuses like these dare to define for us what that period
in America's history was like. The wounds of a country having turned its
back on us are still too raw for anyone—anyone who didn't serve
in that war—to tell us what we should all learn from Vietnam.
Keep your opinions to yourself. You have not yet earned
the right to define or explain the America of those days to us.
Having said all that, the following video attempts to do
just that. From our perspective, it hurts to watch it. Most of the comments
are balanced, but still, on occasion, something is said, or a picture is
shown, that touches a raw
nerve; comments are made that ignite a spark of anger.
Watch it if you can. If you can't, just turn it off and
get another beer.
-- Length
00:13:41
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